497 - West Meade Waterfall
It was one of those days, folks. You show up to a seemingly epic waterfall only to find sprinkles. But hey, we’re prevailing no matter what.
Because guess what? This is photography. Not pick your best days and showcase them like a stupid motherfucker. Alright let’s cut to it.
Today’s waterfall of choice was titled “West Meade Waterfalls,” which, contrary to last week’s waterfall, might be the worst named waterfall I’ve ever heard. And it checked out. The thing was only dripping when I showed up. I talked to a random guy running by (because the waterfalls in the middle of a neighborhood,) and he said it’s simply because this year is “particularly dry.”
I want to believe that, but he may just be making excuses to compensate for the fact that he moved next to a lackluster waterfall.
But if I’m being honest, I can’t say it was too lackluster. If you’re a macro photographer, this place might be the place you shoot your next award-winning photograph. The whole thing was covered in beautiful rippling rock layers, vibrant moss, and teardrop streams.
Let’s start with the first photo I got, which was of a green leaf peeking out of the mossy walls:
“Moss Trio”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 1000 ~ 38mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/60s]
(Want a Print? Get it here.)
Fairly simple shot, I don’t think I have to dive too much into details here. The main thing I did was isolate the leaves and pull their luminosity out a bit, to contrast them better with the mossy backdrop.
Then I got similar shot, but instead of highlighting the mossy texture, I wanted to emphasize the wet rocks:
“Acid Stone”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 500 ~ 17mm ~ f/2.8 ~ 1/40s]
(Want a Print? Get it here.)
I’m not sure what it is about that texture, but it’s so psychedelic I couldn’t pass up on the shot. It feels like you’re melting into a black hole or something. The leaf was used for scale, and a contrast of color. One point I want to make is that I cropped it so that the stick is symmetrical/flipped from the leaf. Makes it a bit more balanced.
I wasn’t kidding when I said there was no epic shot here today guys. Literally nothing except dribble streams. I just had to figure out how to capture them. It was too dark in this forest (high trees) to have a high shutter speed and capture the water droplets frozen in the air, so I had to scoot back a bit.
And when I did, I saw this cobweb-stricken creature. Let me know if you can identify the face… Imagine the two black spots are eyes, and the lower black bar is the mouth. The middle stick is a sort of eye:
“Monster of the Moss”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM
[ISO 2000 ~ 119mm ~ f/8 ~ 1/20s]
(Want a Print? Get it here.)
Lil’ monster there for you. Still, those streams are frocking lovely. Not something you see everyday…
Anyway, that’s today’s adventure folks. Finding monster faces in the most mundane waterfalls. Now the bar’s high. There’s truly no excuse for showing up somewhere shitty and not finding something interesting.
STAY TUNED… I’m on a waterfall binge in Tennessee (there’s so many…) and the next two shoots have freaking killer shots.
♫ Don’t go chasing waterfalls, please stick to the rivers and lakes that you’re used to… ♫
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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